1902] South African Gossip 27 



as it was talked of quite openly at Johannesburg as due to take place 

 at the end of the year, and it did in fact take place on the 31st of 

 December. Mr. Chamberlain, in answer to my question, said. ' Well, 

 I was consulted as to what would be the attitude of the Govern- 

 ment in the case of a bona fide popular rising at Johannesburg, and 

 my answer was that if it was bona fide the High Commissioner would 

 be instructed to intervene to restore order, and of course that would 

 have meant by the forces of the Crown.' ' As a matter of fact,' 

 Landon explained, ' the raid as nearly as possible succeeded. What 

 hindered its success was that the Johannesburgers could not make up 

 their minds what flag they should hoist, the Union Jack or the flag of a 

 Republic, and they had agreed to send a Commissioner to Cape Town 

 to settle this question, and while they were awaiting the answer Jame- 

 son grew impatient, for his men got tired of doing nothing, and were 

 drifting away from him, and he resolved to risk the coup. Jameson 

 was always a gambler. When he was making £2,000 a year as a Doc- 

 tor, he used to lose £1,000 and £1,500 a night at cards, and he treated 

 the raid in the same gambler's spirit. He had 500 men still with him, 

 in another week he would have had only fifty, and he played his stake. 

 If the Johannesburgers could have made up their minds, they could 

 have got possession of the fort and with it of the whole situation, for 

 all the ammunition, artillery, and supplies of the Transvaal were there, 

 and there were only seven men to guard it. The thing might have been 

 done quite easily. As it was it failed through Jameson's folly. He 

 ordered the advance in spite of seventeen telegrams he received order- 

 ing him to stop, including one from the Queen. ' Yes,' said the Prin- 

 cess, ' Grandmama has several times told me long before it happened, 

 that she only hoped to be spared living to see another war in South 

 Africa.' 



" Landon also told us about the part Schreiner had played in what 

 he called ' the black week.' Schreiner had up to that time been the 

 trusted leader under Hofmeyr, of the Bond, but he had the wit, Lan- 

 don said, to see that the defeat of the British armies would oblige Eng- 

 land to destroy the Dutch Republic, and he came over secretly to Milner. 

 It was this that prevented a general rising in Cape Colony, for all 

 trusted Schreiner, and when he advised against it the Dutch followed 

 him. He spoke of the Orange State as a model of good Government, 

 honest in all branches of its administration, and on good terms with 

 the English Government. I pushed him to say what reason there was 

 for the war, which he avowed was forced on by our side. He said it 

 was one entirely of racial ascendancy, and that if matters had been left 

 alone for a few years more, the Dutch would have become predominant 

 in South Africa. When I further asked what harm there would have 



